Honda Civic Type-R

World Car Fans has a gallery of new spy photos of Honda Motor's Euro-Civic hatchback, apparently in Type-R trim. The lightly disguised Civic looks like it should be a worthy competitor in the european market's hot hatch wars.Although WCF reports that all models of the new hatch will get sportier suspension tuning than the sedan, the real fun is reserved for the Type-R, which gets a 197 hp 2-liter engine - good for a 0-100 km/h time of 6.5 seconds.The...

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Audi awards Q5 production to Germany

Audi's next salvo in its rapidly expanding softroader arsenal, the Q5, will be built in Ingolstadt, Germany. The announcement came this week, courtesy of Audi's Chariman of the Board, Dr. Martin Winterkorn. Production of the new model is expected to commence in 2008, involving about 1,700 workers. The decision is being touted by the automaker as an important demonstration of their commitment to their assembly operations in Germany. This is the second...

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Mercedes SL

The ‘diamonds’ probably aren’t real, but it’s a quite eyecatching car anyway. The Mercedes SL is totally covered with stones and will most certainly give the driver a whole lot of attention.Diamond-covered Mercedes SL sure to turn heads [leftlanenews.com]via [Neatora...

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Lexus IS 350 almost ready for American Le Mans

announced in December that they would be fielding a team of two IS 350's in the 2006 American Le Mans Series GT2 class and they've been hard at work getting the car ready for competition.The team has announced that they will begin testing in the next few weeks with the goal of a race debut in July. Although we'd love to be racing this weekend in Houston, building a new, competitive, GT2 car from the ground up is a complex undertaking," said Team...

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Seat Leon Sport

SEAT is going to pull the covers off its hottest new Leon so far at next week’s Madrid Motor Show (25th May), with the world debut of the new Leon FR. This 5door coupe - hatch (notice the Alfa Romeo influenced hidden rear door handles) will be offered with two engines, a 200 Hp petrol and 170 Hp diesel with styling modifications to match.DESIGN: The arrival of the new FR sees the Leon step up another gear in the visual department. In particular, the front air intake design with honeycomb grille is very distinct from that found on other Leons, taking...

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FAW debuts the Mazda 6 based, Hongqi Benteng sedan in China

FAW (First Automobile Works) unveiled its new Benteng mid sized sedan at the Hangzhou Auto Show. The independently developed Benteng (translated “Galloping forward” in Chinese) is the first member of a new generation of Hongqi models. Based on the Mazda6, the Benteng is manufactured in China by the FAW-Mazda joint venture.Benteng is equipped with a four-cylinder, 16-valve engine producing 163 Hp (120 kW) and a maximum torque of 204 Nm (20,8 kgm)...

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